A year ago, drivers approaching the “Rava-Ruska–Hrebenne” border crossing counted potholes rather than kilometers — the road to the Polish border had been a bottleneck for trucks, tourists and volunteer convoys for years. This autumn the situation has finally started moving: repair work on the M-09 highway has passed the psychological halfway mark and is closing in on the finish line.
The road in question is the M-09 Ternopil–Lviv–Rava-Ruska highway, one of the country’s main transport corridors toward the European Union. For Lviv region, this is not just “another repair job” but an artery that determines the speed of freight transport, the throughput of the border crossing, and even the logistics of aid to front-line regions. For public procurers and the construction industry, the story is also interesting because it shows how a major infrastructure project gets carried through to completion without stopping — despite the war and a shortage of resources.
The road leads to the “Rava-Ruska–Hrebenne” crossing point and, through it, to the Polish border — a spot that thousands of trucks with export cargo, humanitarian aid and ordinary passenger cars pass through every day. For years this stretch had a reputation as one of the worst in the west of the country: a narrow carriageway, unsafe bridges, no proper shoulders. That’s why news of a major overhaul of the M-09 highway doesn’t sound like a routine report on spending — it’s a real change in quality of life for people and businesses across the region.
What Exactly Is Being Repaired on the M-09
As of mid-September 2026, the works cover a 62-kilometer stretch and 13 bridge crossings heading from Lviv to the Ukrainian-Polish border. Here are the key figures behind the project:
- nine of the thirteen bridges have already been fully repaired, with work under way on four more;
- overall project completion is approaching 58%;
- the carriageway is being widened to a 2+1 configuration with safety islands, boosting capacity and road safety;
- stopping bays for public transport are being built in;
- small, unsafe bridges are being replaced with modern culverts, and part of the utility networks is being relocated away from the carriageway;
- one 27.6 km section of works is already more than 57% complete;
- the project runs from 2025 to 2027.
- Road Fund 2027: Ukraine’s Budget Finds Money for Roads for the First Time Since the Full-Scale War
For builders, these figures aren’t just dry bookkeeping — they signal pace: when work is under way simultaneously on bridges, road surface and utility networks, it means the contractor and the client have synchronized dozens of processes at once without shutting down traffic entirely.
Who Is Paying for the Overhaul of the Road to the EU Border
The M-09 repair is being financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with total project costs exceeding €100 million. It’s one of the clearest examples of how international credit lines are working to rebuild and modernize Ukraine’s roads of national importance right now — not “someday after victory.”
The EBRD’s credit programs have supported the renewal of western Ukraine’s border infrastructure for several years now, and the M-09 highway has long been named among the priorities — precisely because of its role in transport links with the European Union. The specific completion figures now emerging show that the project is moving on schedule, rather than remaining just a line item in a financing plan.
The real point of this news isn’t the latest completion percentage — it’s that the road is stopping being a symbol of chronic underfunding of border infrastructure. Once repairs are finished, travel time for freight will shrink and the throughput of the route toward the EU will grow — and that directly affects exports, humanitarian logistics and the mobility of people from front-line regions.
Every repaired bridge on the road to the border is a small but tangible proof that the country keeps building, even when the daily news brings entirely different headlines.
Read also
- Urban Mobility Forum in Lviv Gathers 500 Experts for Europe’s Urban Future
- Bridge in Kulykiv on the M-09: Repairs Finished Right on Schedule
- Road Rehabilitation in Ukraine 2026: 16 Million m² of Road Surface Already Completed
SpecServis expertise on this topic: Projects
Source: Gal-Info
